After demonetisation, meat shop owners now hit by avian influenza

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Sorabji Compound, known to cater meat lovers from across the city, did not see any walk-ins after having been shut most for days recently, owing to the AMC’s directive, which was issued following cases of bird flu or H5N1 influenza.

The owners of seven meat shops at Sorabji Compound in Juna Wadaj, who had to shut their business during the profitable Makar Sankranti season, said that bird flu outbreak and subsequent shutdown for several days have hit their business hard.

Manubhai Daayma, who sells various meat and eggs in the area, said, “AMC officials asked to shut the shops until further notice as they wanted to secure a radius of around 10 km around Memnagar. I don’t even sell chicken, still I had to shut shop and lost business of around Rs 5,000 a day.”

Ronak Singh, who runs a meat shop nearby, said, “The shop was shut from January 13 to January 16, and reopened only last Monday. AMC officials checked my shop for chicken, and did not find any. We have suffered a loss of Rs 10,000 per day during the festival season due to the bird flu scare.”

Ajit Khoja, who manages an egg shop in the area, said the brand that operates 12 egg shops in the city has witnessed a dip in the sale by more than 50 per cent in the past one week. “Just as we were limping back to normalcy post-demonetisation, we had to shut shop, even if we don’t source our eggs locally and purchase from wholesalers, who have poultry farms in Sanand, Anand and Mahua and Ajmer. Customers ask us about bird flu, and we are forced to boil eggs and eat in front of them to assure them.”

Police had on Thursday even asked street hawkers not to sell even “vegetarian items” and juice on the lane near St Xaviers Loyola School in Memnagar for three months. Similarly, at Sanjaynagar in Naranpura area, several shops that sold meat were asked by police to relocate to Sorabji Compound. Police were also seen securing several streets from hawkers in residential areas in and around Vijay Char Rasta as a “preventive measure”.

However, big fast food restaurant chains such as McDonald’s and other prominent restaurants in the city did not face any dip in the sale due to the outbreak of avian influenza. A staffer of McDonalds on Vijay Char Rasta said: “Our meat is not sourced locally, so we do not have any such issues…”

Arvind Gaur, manager at Upper Crust restaurant in Vijay Char Rasta area, said there was no dip in business. The restaurant, however, stopped selling non-vegetarian dishes on Sunday. Other restaurants in the city also not recorded any dip in business, even as many in Memnagar and Navrangpura on Sunday decided to adhere to the AMC directive and stop selling meat and egg dishes.